Uncertain times for family shelter
At 16 years old, Shanaya McLarenMarsh was told she was eight months pregnant. The baby was only three weeks away.
Shanaya and her partner Sean Windle, then 20, were staring parenthood straight down the barrel. ‘‘It was scary,’’ Shanaya says. Fast forward a year and their baby, Bella-Rose, is a healthy, bubbly girl.
Shanaya credits the 1000 Days Trust house, where she and Sean spent a week in September last year, bonding with their baby and learning parenting skills.
She learned to cook, and the trust also helped Sean into an adult literacy course so he could get his driver’s licence, and showed him how to compile a CV.
The young parents are just one of about 60 families the 1000 Days pilot programme has helped, but the trust has now had to make the painful decision to end it in the absence of secure funding. However, its founders and supporters hope its valuable services will get a second chance.
The trust works on the premise that the first 1000 days of a child’s life are critical, and early intervention has huge benefits later. It was formed by several Southland medical professionals who saw a gap in social services where vulnerable children were not getting the necessary support.
Trust founder Viliame Sotutu saw the need during his work as a community paediatrician at Southland Hospital.
He also saw ‘‘awful stuff’’ in his work with Child, Youth and Family Services, providing confidential assessments of children referred to the agency.
Social services and medical professionals did a fantastic job in most cases, but sometimes the issues were too complex, he says.
Through his own research and discussion with peers at the hospital, Sotutu became aware that early adversity has long-term effects. In response, they pioneered a pilot programme that saw a team of professionals work with families to provide a stable nurturing environment to give children the best start at life.
The point of difference from other services offered is that families stay at the trust’s house where they take part in a five-day intensive intervention programme.
Staff work closely with them over a number of weeks beforehand, to identify their needs and to design a plan.
‘‘We needed to bring people out of potentially dysfunctional and very stressful homes into a place where they could rest, catch their breath and be relieved of a whole bunch of competing distractions and where we could just do life with them and work with them.’’
The project gained support from Te Putahitanga, Ngai Tahu, The Community Trust of Southland, We're one small trust set up in Southland and so trying to raise our profile nationally to secure funding has been a challenge. Invercargill Licensing Trust and the Southern Trust. Unable to secure long-term central government funding, the scheme has come to an end, but the trust hopes to consolidate its findings and present a case for financial support.
‘‘Understandably the Government is going to want to commit to something where it’s got some evidence rather than just a bunch of enthusiastic and passionate claims about what we are purporting to do, and so I think it’s actually a reasonable and understandable thing that we haven’t been able to get big funding to take this to the next stage.’’
Trust chair Prue Halstead says it hopes to have a residence running early next year. She estimates running the house costs $500,000 per year, but that figure will be reviewed as the trust evaluates its services.
‘‘We’re one small trust set up in Southland and so trying to raise our profile nationally to secure funding has been a challenge.’’
1000 Days Trust early childhood educator Megan Pearson says bringing Shanaya and Sean into the house was about giving them the opportunity to realise they could be good parents.
Once Shanaya got over the initial shock of becoming a mother, the trust was there to support her, Pearson says.
‘‘She knew she wanted better than what she had, so she wanted to go back to school.’’
Sean is looking to study mechanics at the Southland Institute of Technology, Pearson says.
‘‘They’re going to make it, which is nice.’’